Monaco

Monaco is a city-state of just over 2 km² between Nice and the Italian border, and more than 80% of its residents are foreign nationals. Newcomers include entrepreneurs, finance and yachting professionals, retirees and families drawn by the tax rules, the schools and short distances.

The catch is cost and space. Homes sold in 2025 averaged €57,569 per m², and good family flats are scarce. Only the free market is open to newcomers, and living here legally means getting a residence card, which depends on a suitable home and enough money to live on. Many people who work in Monaco live across the border in France, where rents per m² are a quarter of Monaco's or less.

Neighbourhoods

Prices below are 2025 averages from IMSEE, Monaco's statistics office. They now include new-build sales, so they cannot be compared with earlier years. Monaco-Ville, the old town on the Rock, has too few sales for a published price.

Renting in Monaco

Only one of Monaco's housing sectors is open to newcomers. State-owned flats are reserved for Monegasques, and the protected sector (buildings completed before September 1947) is let only to registered protected persons, such as Monegasques and some long-standing residents. Newcomers rent in the free sector, where the contract sets rent and terms.

Most lets go through agencies; the Chambre Immobilière Monégasque lists its members. You make a written offer with a deposit of three months' rent, your ID and often a bank reference. Leases usually run one to three years and renew automatically; notice is typically due three months before the end, and you can leave early only if the lease has an exit clause.

What to budget for:

• Deposit: three months' rent, sometimes four, plus a provision for charges.
• Rent: usually paid quarterly in advance; paying from a foreign account, you may be asked for a year up front.
• Agency fee: 10% of the first year's rent plus 20% VAT, paid by the tenant.
• Lease duty: 1% of the rent and charges for the whole lease, paid by the tenant when the lease is registered with the tax office, within three months of signing.
• Inventory and insurance: a bailiff's report costs a few hundred euros up to about €1,000, and home insurance is compulsory.

Supply is tight. Agencies estimate rents rose by roughly 8–15% in 2025, family flats can go within a week, and finding a large flat can take months. Try the rent calculator or [search for flats to rent in Monaco](search:2-bedroom flat to rent in Monaco).

Buying in Monaco

There are no specific restrictions on foreigners buying, in their own name or through a company, but owning a home does not by itself give you the right to live here. Every sale goes through a Monaco notary. The usual steps are a written offer, a preliminary contract with a 10% deposit held by the notary, title checks, then signing and registration. In older buildings in the regulated sector, the State can pre-empt a sale.

So a private buyer of a €4 million resale flat should budget about €250,000 for duty and notary, plus about €144,000 if an agent is involved. Try the buying-costs calculator.

Mortgages. Monaco property loans usually come as part of a private-banking relationship, and some banks lend against an investment portfolio instead. Expect to put down 30–50% of the price and to document the source of your wealth. Registering a mortgage costs 0.65% of the amount secured, plus notary's fees. Talk to a Monaco bank or broker early, and see the mortgage calculator.

Annual costs. There is no property tax or housing tax, but service charges vary a lot, so ask for recent accounts and planned works. Monaco does not tax individuals on rent or on gains when they sell, though your home country may. Buying through a company means higher duty and extra reporting, so take advice from a notary and lawyer first.

Schools

Monaco's state schools follow the French national curriculum and are free; they teach English from age 3 and Monegasque from CE2 (age 8) to 3ème. FANB (François d'Assise–Nicolas Barré) is a Catholic private school under contract with the State, teaching the French curriculum from 3 to 18. State-school enrolment for September runs from early January to mid-March and needs a copy of your residence card. If you live in Monaco but want a school in France, check the official procedure for schooling outside the Principality first.

Supermarkets and everyday shopping

The main big shop is the Carrefour hypermarket in Fontvieille (27 avenue Albert II), open Monday to Saturday 8:00–21:00 and Sunday 9:00–19:00, with home delivery and click-and-collect. Carrefour Market on boulevard Albert Ier serves La Condamine. Prices run above nearby France, so many residents do a weekly shop across the border.

The Condamine market on Place d'Armes opens every day: producers from 7:00 to noon, other stalls until 15:30. Its covered hall is closed for renovation until about early 2027, and it delivers free to Monaco residents except on Sundays. The Monte-Carlo market on avenue Saint-Charles also opens daily. Rent dominates the cost of living: one agency re-let a one-bedroom flat at €5,800 a month in 2025, up from €5,300.

Getting around

Monaco is small enough to walk, and 33 public pedestrian links with around 100 lifts and escalators connect the lower and upper streets, free and around the clock. The CAM bus network runs six daytime lines, an evening bus until 00:20 and a night bus until 04:00 at weekends. A single ticket is €2 on board or €1.50 by app or contactless card; a monthly pass is €22.

Parking is the constraint. Monaco Parkings runs more than 40 public car parks, with residents' subscriptions at about €118.50 a month in 2026, sometimes after a waiting list. Exchange a foreign driving licence within a year of arriving, or you will have to take Monaco's driving tests.

Nice Côte d'Azur airport is 22 km away: about 25 minutes by motorway in light traffic, with a fixed €95 taxi fare (2026, before supplements). The Zou! express bus 80 also runs there, and helicopters take 7 minutes, from about €195 a seat.

Regional trains from Monaco reach Nice or Ventimiglia in Italy in about 25 minutes, every 15 minutes at peak times, stopping at Menton. Lignes d'Azur buses 100, 100X, 110 and 112 link Monaco with Nice and Menton, and the 101 serves Èze, Cap-d'Ail and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.

Tax in brief

Monaco has had no personal income tax since 1869, for people genuinely established here. Key points:

• French nationals are taxed by France under the 1963 France–Monaco tax convention (bar a small group settled before October 1957) and may owe French real-estate wealth tax (IFI).
• US citizens are taxed by the United States on worldwide income wherever they live.
• Your old country may keep taxing you if you do not fully leave.
• Tax residence certificate: needs a residence card plus more than 183 days a year here, or your main centre of activities here. It costs €600 and lasts a year.
• Property: no property tax, housing tax or wealth tax; no Monaco tax on individuals' rental income or capital gains.
• Inheritance and gifts on assets in Monaco: 0% between spouses and between parents and children, 8% between siblings, 10% for uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces, 13% for other relatives and 16% for anyone else.
• VAT: French rates, 20% as standard.
• Bank checks: Monaco has been on the FATF grey list since June 2024. In June 2026 the FATF said it had substantially completed its action plan, with an on-site visit due before any removal. Expect thorough source-of-funds checks.

Moving here

EU and EEA citizens can move with a passport or ID card. Most other nationals, including UK citizens, first need a French long-stay establishment visa (type D) from the French consulate where they live; if you have lived in France for over a year, you ask the French Embassy in Monaco for a transfer of residence instead.

1. Secure a home

   Rent or buy a home big enough for your household, register the lease and set up electricity, as you will need both documents.

2. Open a Monaco bank account

   If you will not work here, the bank's certificate of funds is your proof of means. Banks set the amount; €500,000 is the figure usually quoted.

3. Gather documents

   Passport (with visa if needed), a recent birth certificate, criminal record extracts from every country you lived in over the last five years, and sworn translations of anything not in French, English or Italian.

4. Apply

   File online or at the Sûreté Publique's Section des Résidents, then attend an interview with your originals.

5. Collect your card

   After checks you are called back to collect it. The first card is a one-year temporary card costing €80.

In the first weeks, set up water (SMEaux), electricity (SMEG) and phone and internet (Monaco Telecom) with your ID, bank details and lease or deed. Employees and the self-employed are covered by Monaco's social security funds; if you will not be working, arrange private health insurance. There is no official processing time, so leave a margin, especially if you need a French visa first.

Questions people ask

Rents and prices are asking prices from public reports and portals, checked October 2026. Sources: IMSEE, Real Estate Observatory 2025 (price per m² by district, 2025 data); IMSEE, release of the 2025 Real Estate Observatory (new price method); Savills, World Research Spotlight: Monaco 2026 (average rent per m²); Global Property Guide, Monaco rental yields (rents by size, Q4 2025); Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, property price per square metre in Monaco (rents by district); MeilleursAgents, prix immobilier Beausoleil; MeilleursAgents, prix immobilier Cap-d'Ail; MeilleursAgents, prix immobilier Menton